When Your Promise Dies

I was privileged this past Sunday to hear my old Pastor, Kenneth Haney, preach at Dallas First Church. During his message he mentioned the story of the Shunammite woman. I opened my Bible to review the story and this story hit me with such a message for our time. You can read the account for yourself in 2 Kings 4:8-37.

To sum the story up, Elisha traveled through the town of Shunem “where a prominent woman lived”. This woman insisted that Elisha should stop at her home for a meal. She then talked her husband into building an extra room on the house for the Prophet to stay in when he traveled through. Over the course of time Elisha stopped by many times. One day he discovered that she was childless and he prophesied to her that by that time next year she would give birth to a son. The woman actually told him “do not lie to your servant!” She revealed in that statement just how badly she wanted a son. She did give birth to a son as the man of God had prophesied. Several years later when the boy was old enough to go to the fields with his dad, he apparently had a heat stroke and died. Her Promise Died!

While the woman had wanted the son, she had not asked for him. The prophecy came to her at God’s pleasure. Now after only a short time with the son she adored, the promise from God, that promise lay dead in her arms. All the hopes and dreams of a mother for her son, died with the boy.

I don’t know about you, but this story hit home for me. How many of us have promises from God that seemingly have died? Perhaps a man of God prophesied to you a promise from God, but the hope you had in that promise has died over time as it remains unfulfilled. Perhaps you have literally seen the promise die in various ways. Your ministry, your marriage, your children backslidden, and the list goes on. The promise has not seemingly died, it HAS died. No breath, no life, DEAD! Perhaps it has even been years since the death, burial and even the mourning for the death of the promise is past. You sometimes think about the promise with regret, but for the most part you have accepted the death and moved on.

Since we are applying the first part of the story to our lives, let’s continue on with the story and see what application we can find. When she realized the boy had died, she took his body to the prophet’s room and laid his corpse upon his bed. She then went to find Elisha. Read 2 Kings 4:25-30.

25 So she went to visit the prophet at Mount Carmel. When he saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman.26 Now, run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you well? Are your husband and the boy well?’” She told Gehazi, “Everything’s fine.”27 But when she reached the prophet on the mountain, she grabbed hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the prophet said, “Leave her alone, for she is very upset. The LORD has kept the matter hidden from me; he didn’t tell me about it.”28 She said, “Did I ask my master for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t mislead me?’”29 Elisha told Gehazi, “Tuck your robes into your belt, take my staff, and go! Don’t stop to exchange greetings with anyone! Place my staff on the child’s face.”30 The mother of the child said, “As certainly as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So Elisha got up and followed her back. (NET)

When her promise died, she went straight to the man of God who had spoken the promise to her. Notice when Gehazi asked if all was well, she answered “everything’s fine”. She didn’t express her doubts or fears to someone who could not help. She simply spoke in faith, “everything’s fine”. To sum it up, Elisha went to her home and prayed and the boy was brought back to life. The promise was resurrected.

I wonder if when my own promises died, several years ago, what would have happened if I had the spirit of the Shunammite woman. If I had kept my head up and trusted God to resurrect the promises He gave. He gave them. He allowed them to die. He can resurrect them!

After all, God knows everything. Therefore, He knew when He promised you all that would come to pass in the meanwhile. We forget that when God promises, He does not always give a time frame. We tend to assume the promise is for immediate fulfillment. But He may have a different time-table in mind. God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). If He promised it He will fulfill it. Our part is to remain faithful to Him and trust Him to fulfill the promise in His time. Has your promised died? Has it been dead to you for some time now? Perhaps even, as in my case, it has been years since you saw your promise die.

My question to myself and to you is a simple one. When your promise dies, what kind of spirit will you have? Will you mourn the death of the promise and bury it, and as time goes by forget it? Or, when your promise dies, will you say everything is fine? The mother recognized the death of her promise, but she also recognized the One Who could resurrect that promise. When you truly trust in Him, the One Who gave the promise, you can say; “everything is fine”, because you realize that God is still in control. When you’re trusting in God to fulfill His promises in His time, you realize that everything is fine. Because He is in control, and He will fulfill His promises.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? (NET)